Can't get any closer

I bought this lens primarily for use as a portrait lens. I liked its shallow depth of field. While I have found it to be pretty good in the portrait category; I found its greatest virtue to be its close up abilities. I am able to focus about an and inch from my subject.

The lens is easy to focus manually though I found it to be a bit touchy in Auto focus mode. It has a limit switch which really helps, but close up it really needs to be done manually most of the time.

The lens came with a very useful lens shade, and a nice protective pouch.